George W. and Nancy B. Van Dusen House

Minneapolis, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The George W. and Nancy B. Van Dusen House is a 12,000-square-foot mansion in the Stevens Square neighborhood of Minneapolis, built in 1891 for George Washington Van Dusen, founder of Minnesota's first and most prosperous grain processing firm. Designed by the architectural firm Orff and Joralemon, the house exemplifies the Richardsonian Romanesque style enriched with French Renaissance elements, including steep roofs and a slender turret topped with a copper finial. The exterior employs pink Sioux quartzite from Luverne, Minnesota, while Maine slate covers the roof and turrets. The opulent interior blends French, Gothic, Tudor, Romanesque, and Elizabethan styles across ten fireplaces, a grand staircase, skylights, carved woodwork, parquet floors, and a tile mosaic entryway. The mansion incorporates I-beam construction and underground tunnels, distinctive features reportedly added after the Van Dusens survived a tornado that destroyed an earlier residence. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.